Democratic National Committee fundraising hits wall as GOP sits flush ahead of midterm elections
By Joseph Weber
The Democratic National Committee entered the midterm elections year "dead broke," with a paltry
$400,000 in party coffers, according to federal records. DNC chairman says the GOP is to blame for
funding turmoil.
The committee finished 2017 with roughly $6.5 million in available cash and about $6.1 million in
debt, according to recently released Federal Election Commission filings. That leaves a balance of
just $422,582 to start a year that will culminate in midterm elections, in which Democrats are
hoping to recapture a majority in the House.
The DNC’s fundraising challenges have been well known since shortly after the 2016 elections, when
President Trump defeated front-running Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The committee has been
rocked by turmoil, including the resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz amid leaked
emails some say showed DNC brass "rigged" the primaries so Clinton would defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders.
In addition, the selection in February 2017 of former Obama administration official Tom Perez to
replace Wasserman Schultz, over Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, sparked discord about the party
continuing to hew to its establishment power base. More recently, the DNC has emerged as a key
figure in the Russia collusion investigation, amid revelations it helped fund the so-called
“anti-Trump” dossier that apparently led, at least in part, to the start of the probe.
Still, the DNC’s money woes come at critical time, as it tries to retake the House and mount a
longshot bid to retake the Senate. The RNC is on track for record year in fundraising as DNC hit an
historic low in November.
The RNC raised $132 million through last year, double the DNC’s $66 million, which along with
group’s minimal cash led The Intercept reporter Ryan Grim, among the first to report the story, to
tweet that the DNC is “dead broke."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Irish Mike